Rumor mills keep spewing out ‘insider’ information that there is a planned ATI-AMD merger. Many have commented that this would hurt Intel and nVidia, as ATI reportedly makes the best chipset for the upcoming Conroe (Core Duo 2). With Intel and AMD as arch enemies, this chipset would likely never see the light of day. nVidia, as we all know, has helped AMD significantly with SLI and their enthusiast chipsets for AMD64 systems.
Reportedly on Monday, AMD and ATI will confront share holders on the possibility of a merger, naturally for their approval. Then the FTC will have their way with AMD and stall the merger for several months, if it even allows it. One speculation that I can offer is that the current lawsuits against Intel by AMD may be used as a cover in order to sneak the ATI merger through the FTC quickly. Other speculations on the net include the fact that AMD doesn’t have enough revenue to completely buy out ATI. Personally, I’d like to see ATI to continue to be a independent company.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]